A young artist whose body was discovered on a Tube track had taken a cocktail of drugs and alcohol before she stepped into the tunnel in the early hours of the morning.
Sarah Cunningham, 31, was hit by a northbound Northern line train at Chalk Farm station at around 3.30am in Camden on Saturday November 2.
An inquest heard Ms Cunningham had walked south about 75m into the tunnel for 18 minutes as she had become ‘so terribly, terribly intoxicated’.
Holding back tears, Coroner Mary Hassell concluded the artist ‘suddenly jumped down on to the track, but she didn’t do so intending her death’, The Standard reports.
Ms Hassell added: ‘Really, by that point she didn’t know what she was doing – she didn’t know where she was going.’
The family barrister of Ms Cunningham, Clodagh Bradley KC, challenged a transport for London manager at the hearing today at Poplar Coroner’s Court about the failure to spot that Ms Cunningham had entered the tunnel and to halt the next train.
Addressing Northern line boss Dale Smith, she said: ‘There was a window of opportunity of some 18 minutes. That is plenty of time to switch off the power and stop the train, isn’t it?’
Mr Smith replied: ‘Yes.’
British artist Sarah Cunningham (pictured) went missing in Camden over a weekend in November
The last photo Ms Cunningham shared on social media shows her in Seoul, South Korea
She was hit by a northbound Northern line train at Chalk Farm station at around 3.30am in Camden on Saturday November 2
Keith Morton, for TfL, stated however that there was an opportunity of ‘less than 20 seconds’ for station staff to have spotted Ms Cunningham step down from the platform and enter the tunnel – had they been watching the correct CCTV images at the time, or immediately afterwards.
It comes as the ‘fantastically talented’ woman had been waiting alone at the station for a train to arrive – but when one did come at around 3.30am, the doors closed just before she could board.
The Metropolitan Police had said the last sighting of the 5ft 3in artist was at around 3am in Jamestown Road, Camden.
Ms Cunningham’s boyfriend Jack Brown said she was spotted leaving an apartment building there at around 2.30am – with friends raising the alarm after they were concerned at the way she left an Air BnB flat they had hired in Camden.
The force confirmed Ms Cunningham’s body had been found at nearby Chalk Farm Underground Station just after 1am that morning – nearly 48 hours after she vanished.
Her family were informed and tributes flooded in from the artist’s friends and colleagues, describing Ms Cunningham as a ‘beautiful soul’ and ‘such a loving person’.
CCTV footage of Ms Cunningham entering the tracks was played during the inquest.
Written evidence from her friends and Mr Brown read in court said they believed Ms Cunningham had taken magic mushrooms, cocaine and ketamine.
Her boyfriend, Jack Brown, had issued a desperate appeal on social media to find her
The 31-year-old is seen in Seoul just over a week before she went missing in Camden
She was also said to have been drinking alcohol and was jet-lagged, having not slept much after returning the previous morning from Korea.
Ms Cunningham had returned to the Air BnB with a friend after she was denied re-entry to the Jazz Cafe by security staff becuase she was intoxicated.
The inquest was told Ms Cunningham did have a history of taking recreational drugs on nights out, though her friends said she was ‘not drug-dependent’.
It was heard Ms Cunningham had taken a ‘hallucinogenic, a tranquilliser and a party drug’ that, combined with the jet lag and alcohol, left her ‘absolutely disorientated’.
Her flatmate Kalasia Senicio said in written evidence: ‘I know the circumstances now and I really do not believe that Sarah intended to take her own life.’
Friends described Ms Cunningham as ‘full of fierce love’, ‘warm and compassionate’ and ‘living and breathing her dream’.
One said: ‘She was like seeing the sunshine on a crisp winter morning in London.’
Ms Cunningham’s parents – Eddie and Sue – and her brother Anthony were not in court but her father tuned into the proceedings remotely.
Ms Cunningham, 31, (pictured, left) was last seen on Jamestown Road
In written evidence, Mr Cunningham said his daughter had twice attempted suicide in her teens – but insisted she was not suicidal at the time of her death.
He said he had spoken to her on November 1, saying ‘she told me she had only slept for two hours’.
Mr Cunningham added his daughter had been awake from 3am and was ‘extremely jet-lagged’.
He said she ‘didn’t want to go out’ but had promised her boyfriend she would, the inquest heard.
The father also said that in his view, his daughter had not committed suicided and she was ‘not low, depressed or unhappy’.
Mr Brown said in his statement his girlfriend became ‘drunk’ before and during being in the Jazz Cafe, with door stuff refusing to let her back in as she went outside for some air.
Her friend Rachael Bullivant returned with her to a nearby Air BnB at around 2am, saying Ms Cunningham had got ‘quite upset and frustrated’.
She added the artist’s mood had changed and she was ‘angry’ her boyfriend had ‘abandoned her’ in a vulnerable state, the court heard.
Ms Bullivant said some of the things she was saying were ‘just not rational’ and she had pleaded with her friend for her not to go.
CCTV footage at the Tube station showed Ms Cunningham ‘scrabbling around’ on the floor searching through a bag in vain, apparently to find a ticket to get through the barrier.
No station staff member was on the ‘gate-line’, though this was not in breach of TfL rules.
Mr Cunningham said his daughter had said she would ‘never do that’, having lost other friends to suicide
A man exiting the station used his pass to open the ticket barrier for Ms Cunningham.
Ms Cunningham was spotted on CCTV acting in an ‘upset’ manner on the platform and a TfL customer services supervisor on duty at the time, Mehmet Boztepe, went to investigate.
He said by the time he arrived two to three minutes later she was nowhere to be seen as he ‘checked everywhere’ but couldn’t locate her and presumed Ms Cunningham was on the northbound train, the inquest heard.
Mr Boztepe came under question about whether he should have intervened sooner and checked the CCTV footage after being unable to find her.
It would have taken around five minutes or more to log into the CCTV system and review the images.
Mr Boztepe was one of two staff on duty at Chalk Farm station at the time, with his colleague on a break.
Mr Smith, TfL’s head of customer operations for the Northern Line said Mr Boztepe had acted appropriately, adding the situation of walking into the tunnel was a ‘highly unusual circumstance’.
Though, Mr Smith said, ‘in hindsight, he may have come back and played that [CCTV footage] back.’
Two voicenotes sent by Ms Cunningham to a friend before her last night out showed no indication of ‘suicidal intent’, the inquest heard.
Mr Cunningham added his daughter had said she would ‘never do that’, having lost other friends to suicide.
A series of recommendations have been published by TfL since Ms Cunningham’s death, including prioritising the ‘safeguarding risk’ on the Night Tube, given the risks of passenger intoxication.
Though, Mr Smith stated that for this particular incident, the opportunity to prevent had been ‘very small’.
A pathologist gave Ms Cunningham’s cause of death as multiple injuries. A toxicology report detected traces of cocaine and ketamine.
Claire Mann, TfL’s chief operating officer said outside the court TfL’s thoughts ‘remain with the family and friends of Sarah Cunningham’.
She added the organisation recognises ‘the important role our staff play in protecting customers from harm’ and action is ‘always’ taken to ‘learn from incidents and improve operational safety’.
The transport boss said she planned to issue a prevention of future deaths notice to TfL to ensure the greater protection of intoxicated passengers.
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